Alphaviruses have become an attractive system for delivery and expression of new genetic information and for development of new vaccines against a wide variety of viral and bacterial infections. Their applications are based on efficient amplification of viral genomes upon their delivery into cells and the ability to produce high levels of messenger RNAs, which typically encode a protein of interest. However, previous alphavirus vectors were designed based on the natural viral genome strategy, which has evolved for efficient virus replication in vertebrates and mosquitoes and for optimal disease development, but not for optimal expression of new genetic information.
The present invention overcomes previous shortcomings in the art by providing recombinant alphavirus replicons with improved protein production efficiency.